1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, a control method therefor, and a computer-readable storage medium storing a program for implementing the control method, and in particular to control of file transmission to the party at the other end of the line who is carrying out a media communication.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the use of products and the way of dealing with troubles have been becoming increasingly complicated, customers frequency contact a call center of a manufacturer and receive answers to questions. In order to deal properly and speedily with troubles, a remote assistance system including an image forming apparatus and a trouble management server at a call center, which manages error information on the image forming apparatus, has been devised. The remote assistance system is configured such that when a trouble occurs, the image forming apparatus itself provides error information to the trouble management server at the call center (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2007-80035).
When an operator receives a trouble call by telephone from a customer, the operator checks trouble information drawn out from the customer with error information managed in the trouble management server, determines a way to deal with the trouble, and answers the customer.
According to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2007-80035, a phone call to the call center is made using an analog telephone line, but a phone call to the call center may be made using IP because IP telephone has been becoming widespread. In this case, no analog line is needed, and IP telephone is typically realized using protocols SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol).
Examples of inquiries received by the call center include problems of image defects such as print failures and image shifts occurring in the image forming apparatus. When such an image defect problem arises, it is difficult for a customer to verbally tell the call center the details of the defect. Accordingly, a poor image or an image on which device setting information on the image forming apparatus is printed is scanned by the image forming apparatus and transmitted from the image forming apparatus to the call center, and the received image is visually checked at the call center, so that the details can easily be understood.
In order to transmit image data to the call center, however, a user has to input an IP address or an E-mail address of the call center or retrieve an IP address or an E-mail address of the call center from an address book. It is very troublesome for the user to perform such an operation while making a phone call to the call center. Moreover, when the user manually sets an address of the party at the other end of the line, he or she may input a wrong address or transmit image data to a wrong address. As a way to solve the problem of such complicated operations, there has been proposed a technique of transmitting image data to an E-mail address of oneself who has been authenticated and logged in using a one-touch operation key (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2006-101484). When a problem arises, however, it is necessary to transmit image data to the party at the other end of the line, and hence the substance of the problem cannot be resolved.
Further, when a user is notified of an IP address or an E-mail address of the call center, there are fears of unauthorized use and leakage of address information on the call center.